sugar rush: understanding emotional values in ...

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SUGAR RUSH: UNDERSTANDING EMOTIONAL VALUES IN UTILITARIAN PRODUCTS AKIYOSHI, Ricardo/ BITTENCOURT, Paulo/ GRAÚDO, Margarida/ SCHÜLER, Gabriel/ COSTA, Filipe, Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos - Unisinos. São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil.

[email protected]/ [email protected]/ [email protected]/ [email protected]/ [email protected].

ABSTRACT Search for innovation, from a socioeconomic point of view, has been an interesting area of study for many fields – including Design. Traditionally focused on form and function, now the Design research field has targeted the experience (aesthetic, symbolic and emotional) as one of its main topics. This challenge becomes more complex when we try to understand the emotional values and meanings that can possibly coexist within a utilitarian type of product. Therefore, this article studied the sugar and its emotional values by using the laddering technique along with stimuli application during the interviews. We will conclude that there’s potential to achieve innovation if we can establish attachment bonds and improve the contexts of user experience.

Keywords: emotional design, laddering, sugar.

INTRODUCTION In the last decades, Design has been through important changes when we talk about research and product development. The traditional approach towards form and function is now focused on user-centered ideals, which happen when the user is the main focus in the research and development process. The premise of product development is that every product is designed to perform a certain task or to attend a certain goal. A car, for instance, is used to transport people. However, along with this utilitarian perspective, a product could also acquire a distinctive meaning according to which brand it belongs to, its characteristics and so on.

Therefore whoever drives a certain vehicle could be associated with a certain socioeconomic class. This concept of adding connotative attributes to a certain object, service, people, is studied by Barthes (1972). The author presents us a “function-meaning” concept, which deals with the possibility of a certain object sustaining multiple meanings. Nowadays variables such as needs, emotions, desire and experiences, which result from the interaction between users and a product or service, are much more noticed than they used to be. This change can be explained by Cross’ (1999) concepts where he states that Design research must be encouraged through development, articulation and communication of Design knowledge. Knowledge may be firstly perceived in people, on how designers are represented or in human abilities when they are used to transform nature into artifacts. It might also be perceived through Design processes, tactics and strategies; and on how products, services, shapes and materials are used to represent or serve a function. Therefore, it is understandable that many fields and study areas may benefit from Design’s academic research expansion. It is also natural that the issues to be found in such researches increase dramatically. The process of evolution of a problem is described by Dorst and Cross (2001) when they suggest problem solving through the use of Design’s creative processes, which could be either while developing and refining both the problem and the solution. The definition and solution of a problem – called co-evolutionary processes – embrace study moments which are

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EXPERIENCE ECONOMY

described as never being still during the development processes. The definition and solution of a problem might build the main foundation when designing a product, service or experience. Brown (2009) emphasizes how important a united team is, who work together from the problem’s definition until the product or service’s final concept. Furthermore, the author points out that the ideas are only achieved when the professionals involved are reflexive, creative and capable of communicating fast and effectively. The importance of Design research can reflect on a socioeconomic scope where marketing differentiation is settled through processes, products and innovative experiences. In a society in which products are more valuable for what they represent other than its value of use (Baudrillard, 2007), it’s relatively easy to comprehend how a product, like a car, is capable of triggering meanings and emotions that could also drive people’s perceptions towards differentiation in a market perspective. However when talking about products that are mainly utilitarian or pragmatic, we are presented with a tougher challenge: meanings and emotional values are not that simple to recognize and be dealt with. Therefore, how can Design research contribute to identify and define these types of products’ meanings and emotional values? In order to answer that question, but without being conclusive, this article aims for a study about the use of sugar in its many ways of consumption. Our main goal is to comprehend how the emotional values and meanings could be identified in order to be brought into the Design processes of product or services developments. Thereunto, we will try to deepen ourselves through to the methodologies used in Design and other fields of study to support our data collection, mainly with an exploratory and interpretative research and analysis. In this case, we are using laddering techniques and applying visual stimulus in order to obtain more complex data – through ideas associations - from our interviewees.

Lipovetsky (2004) theorizes about the current consumerist and hedonic society which is in constantly pursuit of well-being and renewal experience through adventure simulacra. The individual situated in this context searches for objects which, when converted to symbols, become meaningful – making feelings such as insecurity, disability and dissatisfaction to be surpassed when facing the egalitarian myth (Baudrillard, 2007). As previously mentioned, adventure simulacra can be defined as experience. According to Pine and Gilmore (1998), they are part of a new modern consumerist era which the authors call Experience Economy. This new economic direction is ruled by theories suggesting ventures’ success through creation and simulation of experiences that are pleasant for the consumers (McLellan, 2009). Studies surrounding experience have been enriched by a number of factors. Since there has been a need to review the role of a designer and to comprehend life and users’ culture in a deeper manner, previously left aside fields of study have begun to be researched. One of these fields is called Design Emotion, highlighted throughout this article as it can be used to produce meanings or emotional values for utilitarian products or for products which have a low symbolic value.

DESIGN EMOTION In order to better understand why we chose the Design Emotion field of study as our main theme, first we need to discuss what are and how emotions are conceived. Izard (1977) discusses that emotions cannot be studied as a single phenomenon, they also cannot be defined by a single act of emotional experience or an electrophysiological reaction on the nervous system. According to Tomkins (1962), Tomkins and Izard (1971), a definition of emotion needs to take into account the aspects of experience of the emotion, brain and nervous system processes and expressive patterns of emotions (facial expressions, for example).

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PRODEEDINGS IASDR2011

According to Donald Norman (2009), human beings are complex animals with complex structures, they are conscient about their roles in the world and are able to reflect on past experiences so they can learn and be successful in the future. Norman categorizes three levels of cognitive emotional processing: visceral, behavioral and reflexive. These levels of cognitive processing ranges from validating simple sensory aspects of a specific object using our “gut” feeling to reflecting about a certain aspect of an object based on past experiences and only then react (emotionally) accordingly. Several other factors could influence the elucidation of emotions, Cattel and Scheier (1961), Spielberger (1966) tell us that in order to better understand these types of reactions first we need to deepen our efforts and studies at the state and traits of emotional states. Researchers like Pieter Desmet and Paul Hekkert (2002), discuss that there are no emotionally neutral products. Any design evokes emotion through either the design itself or because of its designers, even if the project is not intended to provoke. A design’s interfaces could be planned to be neutral, but it does not mean that their effects on the users will be so. Studying the users’ emotional reactions might bring benefits to designers, since it is then possible to understand the most efficient variables when evaluating a product. By noticing the way people interact with and experience a product, the designer will have the necessary input so that innovative results may be achieved successfully and more often. Desmet and Hekkert (2007) discuss about the interaction experience levels between a user and a product, according to the picture below (Figure 1):

AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE

A product’s ability to waken one or more body senses may be called an aesthetic experience. According to Desmet and Hekkert, a product can be pleasant to look at, touch or even smell. It can be related to the visceral level (Norman, 2009), which can establish the user’s first opinions and emotions towards an object. At the same time, the first feelings of desire can occur if the user gets a positive first impression from the product. EXPERIENCE OF MEANING

While accessing the user’s memory and making associations and interpreting signs, the experience of meaning depends mainly on cognition. By doing so, the individual is able to make connections between metaphors and determine characteristics and personalities symbolically to a product. Experience of meaning can develop attachment links (Desmet and Hekkert, 2007) and through interactions it is also possible to build identity connections. EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE

Emotions are evoked by an appraisal, interpreting a certain event, product or experience. The experience itself is directly related to beliefs and to the individual’s personal and cultural memories. That way, an object or experience may provoke different emotions to different people, as represented in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Emotion production flowchart. Source: Desmet, 2002.

We were also motivated by the studies of Lindstrom (2005), in which the author suggests that improving the experience by engaging the five senses could be determinant to build a stronger, better brand or product. The studied done by Lindstrom reveals that the perceived value of a product in relation to the bond between the brand/product x consumer can be highly

Figure 1: Product Experience Framework. Source: Desmet and Hekkert (2007)

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influenced by the emotional experience and senses engaging.

economic classes during the XVII and XVIII centuries. We can usually find many types of sugar in the supermarkets nowadays, each one being the result of a specific extraction process that may contain different nutritional properties. (Figure 3)

PROBLEM SETTING According to the scenario described so far, it is possible to notice that niche marketing works through products, services and experiences innovation. Baudrillard (2007) emphasizes that products are part of a system of symbols, just as much as a language does. It is, therefore, quite accurate to say that the individuals access and build reality by consuming products and, at the same time, they builds their own identity when socially sharing what the products mean. Baudrillard’s statement gets even harder to be understood when we talk about neutral or utilitarian products. Products such as salt, paper, fuel, batteries and so on fit in this category. That is where lays the biggest challenge to designers and professionals who work in product development: how to add emotional value to utilitarian products? Sugar was the main commodity product in Europe during the XVIII century (Ponting, 2000). Mintz (1986) analyzes how much its value has changed from being an exotic and pricy spice to being present at everybody’s homes on a regular basis. [...] to learn the anthropology of sugar, we need to explore the meanings of its uses, to discover the early and more limited uses of sugar, and to learn where and for what original purposes sugar was produced. This means examining the sources of supply, the chronology of uses, and the combinations of sugar with other foods in the making of new dietary patterns”. (Mintz, 1986, p. 6) Throughout history, sugar has always been linked to a number of situations: though the period of slavery in the colonial period, to change or disguise the taste of different meats, to preserve fruits and even as a rival ingredient when used instead of honey as an example. Still related to food consumption, it is usually associated to different contexts depending on how it was used, such as in coffees, chocolates and teas – contexts which were exclusively available to higher

Figure 3: Types of sugar: Cristal, refined, brown, sugar cubes, demerara sugar. Source: Authors

What would take the consumer to choose a type over another? Is it because of the sugar’s nutritional properties or something else? Would it be possible to identify emotional or meaningful attachments when the product is used? Could Design help develop the necessary contextual conditions for emotional and meaningful values to be attached to the product? The research we present searches for these answers through data collection and analysis along with bibliographic review by the authors we have mentioned so far.

METHODOLOGY This phenomenological research will investigate and describe particular phenomena, defined by Dartigues (2008) as experiences lived through life, using a qualitative method. Before we started our data gathering, we built a persona framework, which is represented by four types of potential sugar buyers and consumers. We selected eight individuals that fitted in our persona groups and distributed them according to our framework. Then to achieve our specific and general objectives, interviews were conducted applying the laddering technique. During our interviews we also applied several visual stimuli: moodboards and videos. We believed that these types of stimuli could improve the quality and depth of the interview, providing the interviewer and the research team better data to develop later on. PERSONAS

Norman (2006) defines Personas as “artificial

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The Trainee In the upper left corner, the Fast Food and Natural section was labeled as Trainee. This persona represents a healthy yet urban lifestyle, and seeks ways of eating that matches its fast paced routine without turning to junk food. This type of persona exercises, is single and is socially active.

people”, traditionally created with the purpose of helping the designer understand better who is going to use a product. The creation of these artificial individuals enables empathy and understanding between the user and the designer. Cooper (1999) states that Personas represent human beings during Design processes. They are hypothetical individuals, prototypes of an actual user. Norman emphasizes that Personas are tools and are able to improve focus and communication on the project, since they provide a common language surrounding experience. Future scenarios or conclusions can be developed through the persona originally designed. In this study personas were created to categorize our interviewees, this measure has widen our potential consumers groups giving us a safer ground in order to make sure that several types of sugar consumers would be interviewed and represented in this research. To characterize the personas in our research, a polarity mapping was built after a brainstorm session with the research team, generating two axes which oppose the concepts NATURAL x ARTIFICIAL and SLOW-FOOD x FAST-FOOD. Four quadrants were generated from that, each one of them representing a persona as seen in Figure 4. The four personas were created to characterize sugar consumers during the interviews, relating their lifestyles to their values. Creating these personas has helped organizing the information collected regarding the interviewees (see Figure 4).

The Stockbroker The stockbroker takes a stressing lifestyle. He doesn’t care about his own health and eats fastfood because it is easier and quicker. He does not exercise and is overweight. To free himself from the daily stress, he smokes. He also drinks too much coffee and does not sleep as much as he should at night. The Entrepeneur/Retired From cross-referring Slow Food and Natural comes the entrepreneur, who understands the importance of healthy eating. He has got time to eat natural, alternative meals. He is financially established, which means he does not get stressed at work. The Advertising Agent The advertising agent is a persona who does not care how food is prepared, buy it has to look healthy and taste good. He consumes cereal bars and boxed juice – the nutritional information does not matter to him. This persona likes to go to restaurants with his friends and does not know how to cook. LADDERING INTERVIEWS

Laddering interviews have an interesting format and seem to be adequate to this research. It consists of a series of questions which, the follow up question always depend on the interviewees previous answer. That way, it is possible to understand how consumers link the product’s attributes, associating them to meanings according to their personal value (Reynolds et al, 1982). The key elements to be determined are attributes, consequences and values. Through this selection, the necessary input will be gathered to, later on, be analyzed according to Emotional Design’s concepts, searching for links that might be useful

Figure 4: Polarity mapping – Source: Authors

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when building meaning and emotional value to utilitarian products. When using this type of method, it is necessary for the interviewer to be able to ask proper questions to the interviewee, identifying elements that could be useful. The main objective is to keep a natural conversation with the interviewee and, at the same time, look for answers by asking unpretentious questions. From the data collected during the interviews, chains of value will be built, representing the key elements about sugar acquisition and consumption.

this, we believe that we were given more complex answers and thoughtful information regarding the products’ meanings and emotional values during the interview process. Moodboards To help stimulate the answers, the interviewees were shown two movies and moodboards – which contained images of candies - related to the theme “sugar”. After a brainstorm session the research team determined that the key themes would be: self-esteem, indulgence and affection /companionship – elements that are related to sugar consumption. During the brainstorm session the team focused on how, when and why people might consume sugar related products. Several topics were addressed and it was noticed that people might consume these types of products when they feel down or when they are amongst friends/family. They also might consume them as an act of indulgence, as a reward or even as an act of affection, such as gifting to a beloved person. We had to make sure that positive, neutral and negative elements were present in our moodboards, in order to keep the visual stimuli balanced.

STIMULI

During our interviews pictures were shown to the interviewees, followed by questions regarding the content and about their experiences and emotions surrounding sugar. It is relevant to point out that the images were not the only source for data collection – they were used merely as a way to immerse in the subject, evoking feelings and memories. Moodboards and videos were also shown, making the interviewees associate through analogies and metaphors. According to Casakin (2007), metaphors are perceived as cognitive strategies that may be useful while organizing design thinking. They might interfere in the way we see reality, organize our experiences and thoughts. Visual stimuli can be used to help creative thinking, which enables an individual to see through a problem using innovative and nontraditional points of view (Casakin & Kreitler, 2005a APUD Casakin 2007). Csikszentmihalyi (1997) states that creative thinking is also related to the ability of analyzing reality, exploring alternative ways and understanding situations through innovative perspectives. This way of thinking can be related to Dorst and Cross’ (2001) theories when they describe how creative processes are essential to develop ideas and solve problems. Along with the interviews, the visual stimuli were carefully applied in order to make sure that the given answers were not guided in any way. Our motivation by using the stimuli was to provoke emotional reactions on our interviewees. By doing

Movies Two movies were selected from a list that contained “sweet” and “sugar” as a theme: Lasse Hallström’s Chocolat and Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. The objective was to stimulate the interviewees to truthfully answer the interview, enriching it with memories and feelings. That way, applying stimuli from moodboards and videos was useful and innovative as it helped stimulate creative thinking which may result in rich and complex answers. As previously stated earlier, the chosen images and movies were used to provoke the metaphorical thinking of the interviewee without limiting the associative area of interview, to make sure that the given information were not tampered in any way.

DATA COLLECTION Data collection was done through exploratory and descriptive qualitative research, helping the group understand the main problem and collecting 6


Figure 5 – Hierarchic value map. Source: Authors

information regarding the context and people involved. As it uses a qualitative approach, the selection was based on the researchers’ judgment. A total of eight individuals were interviewed and a few questions were asked to try and identify each one of them as a persona. Data collection followed the steps briefly described below:

that would better summarize each of them. In the clauses, we were able to identify attributes, consequences and personal values (A-C-V), which might express how an individual reasons (Veludode-Oliveira and Ikeda, 2004). Gengler, Mulvey and Oglethorpe (1999) alert that the objective when analyzing content is not to describe each person’s ladders but to develop portraits which are similar to the way the interviewees reason. In this case, the importance of the interviewers’ role is once more highlighted. In this step of our research, intensive and careful work is done, mainly because the results obtained here originate serve as a basis for follow-up analysis. Gengler, Mulvey e Oglethorpe (1999) IN: (Veludo-de-Oliveira and Ikeda, 2004 , p. 206). Variables analysis can be related to how a problem evolves, as described by Cross and Dorst (2001). The problem – defining A-C-V – lets the researcher re-encode data and combine categories until the final result suits the final objective. (Gengler; Reynolds, 1995, p.22)

1. Personas and polarity chart making; 2. Visual stimuli material selection (moodboards, videos and images); 3. Questions to identify and categorize personas preparation; 4. Laddering interviews implementation.

DATA ANALYSIS Data analysis followed these rules: a) content analysis and b) hierarchical value map construction (HVM).

A-C-V example collected from one of the interviews: After seeing images related to sweets, the interviewee answered:

CONTENT ANALYSIS

After data collection, the results were interpreted through content analysis. The process consisted of reading the interviews and identifying a clause 7

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generates good memories. The interviewee reveals the value of this product which originated from sugar: freedom.

> What do you think about these images? Wow. So many candies! But you know... I don’t really like looking at them.

HIERARCHICAL VALUE MAP (HVM)

> Why?

As previously seen, a hierarchical value map was build based on the items mentioned in a). (HVM Figure 5). This representation shows the – directly or indirectly - existing links between the analyzed elements. According to Veludo-de-Oliveira and Ikeda (2004), not every link between attributes, consequences and personal values can be considered since they might be irrelevant to answer the general or specific objectives of this research. HVM representation can structure variables through means-end chains, starting from the attributes, passing through consequences until it gets to personal values. It is possible, by linking these chains, to establish which parameters are more important for each level. This step is crucial as it directs the researcher to specific objects/problems, making the research process smoother. We are able to notice now that caster sugar, as it is presented at the supermarkets, carry negative consequences. The interviewees link this product to obesity, fat, temptation, nausea and excess. These consequences are not taken into consideration, though, when talking about products made from sugar. The interviewees related sweets and candies to affection, relaxation, honesty and parties; which carry values of freedom, well-being, leisure, family and pleasure.

Too much sugar. No way. That’s bad for you. > Why do you think it’s bad for you? Because this is all sugar. And sugar isn’t good for you, I mean... Having a few every now and then it’s ok, but all of it, no way. > From these candies, which ones do you think are O.K. to eat? Gumdrops. I love gumdrops. Chocolate. But this (points to the cotton candy), no way. > What’s wrong with cotton candy? That’s really artificial. Imagine what kind of product they use to get it colored that way. These drops as well. > And aren’t gumdrops artificial? (laughs...). Alright. They are, right? But I like having gumdrops. > Why do you prefer gumdrops over cotton candy considering they’re both artificial? You caught me... I think it’s because gumdrops remind me of my childhood, of going to school. Or going to the movies. > Reminds you of good things? Yes. Who doesn’t like being a kid? > What do you miss the most about being a child? Not having much to do. And we could be honest. > So now you can’t be like that anymore? I can, but it’s difficult sometimes. Especially at work. > Are having nothing to do and honesty important to you? Yes. Very important. > What is “not having much to do”? When can you do that?

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

When I don’t have a fixed schedule, for example. Those days are like a dream. To be able to sleep until late... To have breakfast calmly...

According to Pine and Gilmore (1998) and McLellan (2000), experience innovation offered to users can be of great value inside of a socioeconomic context. Through new and catchy experiences, emotion shows as an important aspect to be observed while developing or improving new products The problem gains another dimension when we take into consideration emotionally low valued products which are merely utilitarian. Through this

By analyzing the above dialogue, we can notice that: Cotton candy: artificial product (sugar’s attribute), is bad for you (consequence). It becomes acceptable when nostalgia (childhood memories) is taken into consideration, a time where not having to engage to commitments

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research, we were able to notice that sugar, especially the caster kind, is always linked to negative attributes or feelings. It reinforces the thesis proposed by Desmet and Hekkert (2007) where they state that there are no emotionally neutral products – and this is also noticed in the interviewees’ speech when they mention how important aesthetic experience is. Users judge through sensory modalities – it is through their senses, sight, touch, hearing, taste and smell that they interpret and evaluate a certain product according to their aesthetic values and cultural memories. In the interviews, sayings like the ones listed below reinforce how senses influence when judging a product.

Figure 6: Product experience framework. Source: Desmet and Hekkert (2007). Adapted.

As proposed by Desmet and Hekkert (2007), when we consider the product as something constant that could not be changed, we can observe how judgment could only be changed through users’ concern.

“Eat with your eyes” “The sweets are colorful” “Out of sight, out of mind” “It looks dirty and wet” (talking about demerara sugar)

Analyzing the hierarchical value map, it is possible to notice that a few values are more important than others when coming up with opinions and individual reasoning. Items such as sociability, well-being, pleasure and family could be interpreted as the sugar’s laddering dominant elements. As seen beforehand, sugar as an ingredient is linked to personal values. Most references to personal values originated from sugar as a product and how it was used, which means that meaning development and addition to emotional value to utilitarian products should be lead towards contexts where experience and personal interest are valued. Therefore, one of the most appropriate ways to add symbolic and emotional meanings could be through aesthetic experience in interaction between the user and the product.

Figure 7: Emotion production model. Source: Desmet, 2002. Adapted.

Improving concern towards a product is a subject which should be studied more intensively. According to Norman (2009), while describing how complex human beings are, and Baudrillard (2007), while describing the symbols’ system, we understand how complex personal interest towards a product could be – even as complex as human’s nature. Design research might be able to adequate data collection methodology and obtain more interesting results through qualitative and usercentered approaches

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BROWN, Tim. Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation. HarperBusiness; First Edition edition. 2009

Research methodology along with visual stimuli seemed to be useful and effective while collecting data from the interviewees. Stimuli allowed the interviewees’ to reason through metaphor linking. That brings us better results, especially because the information given by the interviewees are quite complex; and identifying personal values was faster and more effective. When applying stimuli, an immersion environment is created for the interviewee (Figure 8) and experience flow becomes more dynamic. Flow is described by Csíkszentmihályi (1997) as a mental operation state which is completely immersed in an experience. While a user is immersed, positive emotions are created and the user’s focus is improved.

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Figure 8: Emotional laddering model. Source: Authors

NORMAN, Don IN: Pruitt, J, & Adlin, T, "The Persona Lifecycle: Keeping people in mind during product design." San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann Press. 2006.

Therefore, laddering along with stimuli use are effective ways to collect data in Emotional Design research. As seen previously, stimuli help build a favorable environment to emotion awakening. Creating specific conditions for an interview experience could be a starting point to an exploratory qualitative research. It is important to emphasize that laddering requires ability, focus and creativity from the interviewer – only applying stimuli will not guarantee a successful experience.

NORMAN, Don. Design emocional – por que adoramos (ou detestamos) os objetos do dia-a-dia. Rio de Janeiro: Rocco, 2009. PINE, J.; GILMORE, J. H. 1998. Welcome to the experience economy. Harvard Business Review, 76(4):97-105 PONTING, Clive. World history: a new perspective. London: Chatto & Windus. 2000. REYNOLDS, T. J.; GUTMAN, J. Laddering theory: method, analysis, and interpretation. Journal of Advertising Research, v.28, p.16, 1998. TOMKINS, S.S. The Face Of Emotion. Nova Iorque: AppletonCentury-Crofts, 1971. VELUDO-DE-OLIVEIRA, T.; IKEDA, Ana. Usos e limitações do método laddering. Revista de admnistração Mackenzie, Ano 5. N.1, p. 197-222, 2004.

REFERENCES BARTHES, Roland. Elementos de semiologia. São paulo: cultrix, 1972. BAUDRILLARD, Jean. A sociedade de consumo. Lisboa: Edições 70, 2007.

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